Page 25 of Nowhere to Hide
“Cupcakes too,” Donny put in.
“That’s a connection at least,” Neal said, focused on business.
“I want you to call Hanson Property, talk to their human resources department, and find out what position Susan held with the firm.” Kreiger pointed a finger at Gibson’s computer.
“I’ll get right on that, or can I…?” Gibson pointed at his burger.
“Of course. Eat first, but eat fast,” Neal teased him.
“Yes, sir.” Gibson unwrapped his burger, added the mustard, and chomped into it.
Neal walked to the coffee alcove and fixed one up for himself. “All we have is one loose connection between Susan and Timothy Hanson. Her employment at his company. How does that tie Ryan to Timothy? Or does it?”
The smell of Neal’s coffee was intoxicating, even over all the other amazing aromas battling for dominance. “There is obviously a connection. We just have to piece it together. Ryan wanted us to know that Timothy was out for himself and dangerous. There has to be a personal stake there.”
“Well, whatever the issue Ryan has with Timothy, it’s obviously compelling enough for Ryan to hold this generation of Hansons responsible. In their own home, for God’s sake,” Kreiger added, his voice taking on a note of pain.
Neal’s phone rang, and he pulled it out while balancing his coffee in his other hand. He set it on the table and eased himself onto the bench. “It’s Officer Moore,” he told the team.
“Put her on speaker,” Kreiger directed.
“You’ve got everyone on this end,” Neal told Moore after hitting a button for handsfree on his phone. “Tell us what you found out.”
There was a brief hesitation before a serious-sounding woman came on the phone. “Officer Moore here,” she said. “I spoke with Mary Ellison, Teresa’s best friend, as it turns out. We had quite an informative chat. Timothy Hanson is Ryan Crawford’s biological father.”
The vehicle fell silent.
A lump of burger and bun slid down Kreiger’s throat making him look like a snake that had swallowed a rat. “Come again?”
“Ryan was left a letter from his aunt. He went to Mary Ellison to get her take.”
The letter didn’t surprise Sandra. But Timothy Hanson actually being Ryan’s father… That sent a fresh dose of adrenaline through her veins.
Moore filled them in on her entire conversation with Ellison. “If there’s anything else I can do to be of help, please name it, sir.”
“Excellent job, Officer Moore. Just a second…” Neal looked around the vehicle and landed on Sandra.
She had one idea. “Special Agent Sandra Vos, here. The more we can find out about Ryan Crawford, the better.”
“I understand that, ma’am.”
“Earlier you told Lieutenant Coleman that Ryan worked at Bottoms Up Pub. You could talk to the people there and see if Ryan was close to any of them. We need to find out as much about his character as we can. He may even have confided his plans for today in someone, possibly how far he intends to take things, his motive.”
“Lieutenant?” Officer Moore prompted Coleman.
“Do it. Keep me posted on what you find out.”
“You got it, sir. I won’t let you down.” With that, Moore was gone.
“Wow.” Donny bunched up the paper liner from his cupcake and tossed it into the recycle bin in the alcove, then claimed a burger.
“Timothy Hanson being Ryan’s father? I, for one, never saw that coming,” Kreiger put in.
“I don’t think any of us did.” Sandra felt confident in saying that much.
“So he had an affair with Susan Crawford, got her pregnant, then she stops working for him,” Neal theorized. “I can understand why he’d want to keep an affair under wraps. Thatwould be quite a scandal for a generational company that prides itself on family values.”
“More than that. I’m quite sure Timothy was married to a wealthy socialite thirty-three years ago,” Monica said.
